Skill's maintainence & Knowledge Retention

[Zippy]

What sorta techniques have you seen used to help firefighters remember things for longer?

Locally,  a LT gets crew members to go grab an item, explain where its from and its uses, and to return it.   Its a laugh sometimes at the knowledge of where very common items are on the appliances.  Its even more interesting when LT's themselves get asked to grab equipment .  Ask a group officer..might get a entirely blank look haha.

[rescue5271]

In the past we have done the same but the last time what we did was well before anyone got to training was to remove all the gear from the appliances lay it out over the station floor and get crews to put it back into the same spot it came out of..Was very sad but funny as we could not remember where it all went...

Sad part was the only one who could put it all back into where it came from was a DGO.......

also we all tend to use the same fill point when filling the truck,so why not use a differant one each time and then you will see how new and old members find it hard to get the stand pipe into the square cover plate's.....

Always remember training is about learning and passing on knowledge....

[Pipster]

Practice Practice Practice

We often do the "go and find xxxx piece of equipment, bring it back to the group, tell everyone where it was, and what it is for."

Great for newbies, but very useful for others.

As for other stuff, such as hose drill, we practice them repeatedly, with various scenarios.    The aim being that by the time we have a fire, no one has to think out bowling out hoses, or connecting them etc, as they can just do it.

We were practicing with 25 mm lay flat a few weeks ago...one of the exercises we had was connecting the Foresty couplings....with your eyes closed.  A few smart ar$%es also connected the couplings behind their backs!

The following week, it was very obvious who had been practicing the week before, and who hadn't!

I also like to get people to run a pump blind folded.  I figure if they can do it blind folded, they can do it on any fire ground, in any weather conditions, any time!

Lots of the basic skills can only be retained with practice (although some people need more practice than others!!)

Pip



 

[bittenyakka]

Wouldn't running a pump blind folded or in zero viability mean your truck is in the wrong spot completely? And create many other safety risks?

[OMGWTF]

Train???


Phhht... who trains these days? We get together and drink a few beers...

[Pipster]

Wouldn't running a pump blind folded or in zero viability mean your truck is in the wrong spot completely? And create many other safety risks?

Our reasoning is that if you can run it blindfolded, any situation you end up in will not be as bad.....so if you can run a pump blindfolded at training, you can run it anywhere!!

Of course, the rest of us get a giggle out watching people run a pump blindfolded!!   (But it is a one in all in situation...everyone has a go)

Pip